Rauner offers some ideas on cutting costs

Rauner brings chickens to press conference

Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune

Chickens are displayed during a press conference held by Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner to represent state spending under Illinois Gov. Quinn introduce rare prairie chickens to the state.

Chickens are displayed during a press conference held by Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner to represent state spending under Illinois Gov. Quinn introduce rare prairie chickens to the state. (Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune)

Facing heavy criticism for months over failing to offer a plan to restore Illinois’ finances, Republican governor candidate Bruce Rauner on Thursday issued an outline of proposed cuts that he maintained would save taxpayers $1 billion.

But Rauner’s plan fell about $3 billion shy of what will be needed to fill an annual budget gap left by the scheduled January rollback of the state’s 2011 income-tax increase. Rauner also didn’t offer specifics on how he’d cut $500 million from the state’s bureaucracy and his outline relied on proposals that have been floating around state government but failed to gain legislative support.

Two of Rauner’s proposals directly reflect the wealth of the Winnetka equity investor and first-time candidate: eliminating paychecks and pension for the governor, something Rauner previously had vowed to do if he wins, and scaling back the state’s plane and helicopter fleet. Rauner said they wouldn’t be needed because he plans to live in the Executive Mansion and added that he would use own money to pay for out-of-state business recruitment trips.

Rauner contended his outline represents a “major, major first step” toward restoring state government’s financial imbalance and said he will unveil detailed spending, economic, tax and education plans within “the coming weeks.”

“This list alone won’t solve every one of our problems,” Rauner said. Asked by reporters how he would be able to put in place some cuts that have been discussed for years and discarded, Rauner replied, “I’ve been successful at everything I’ve ever done.”

“Rauner’s prank today notably includes a grandstanding salary provision that would mean that only millionaires and billionaires could be governor,” Quinn campaign spokeswoman Brooke Anderson said in a statement.

Rauner said the concept of not taking a salary or pension as governor would only affect him, if he is elected, and not future governors.

“Pat Quinn talks a good game, no results,” Rauner said. “We’re going to get results. We’re going to change the system.”

Rauner’s proposals were unveiled at a hotel meeting room near Midway Airport, where the state shuttle to Springfield flies from and also the Southwest Side base that also is home to powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan, the state’s Democratic chairman.

The location of Rauner’s announcement may have been connected to another proposal he offered — one which involved no cash savings. It would restrict the outside employment of legislative leaders. Madigan, the state’s longest speaker of the House, has long profited from his outside legal zoning business.

“No more law firms on the side,” Rauner’s “blueprint” stated, a reflection that Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, each have law practices.

House Republican leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs also is a lawyer and said he would “gladly negotiate what reforms (Rauner) thinks are necessary. I think it’s something that should be brought to the table.”

Rauner maintained $500 million could be cut from the Illinois Department of Central Management Services, state government’s main administrative operations and purchasing agency. But he offered no details.

Another $250 million, he said, could come from the state’s Medicaid program through tougher verification for eligibility into the federal-state funded health care program for the poor and elderly. Income verification has become a heated issue between Republicans and Democrats.

Rauner, who has favored shifting state workers into a 401-(k) style defined contribution program among his various pension proposals, said another $60 million could be saved by shifting state lawmakers into such a plan.

Cullerton, appearing at an unrelated event in the Loop, said Rauner’s defined contribution proposals were “blatantly unconstitutional” and said such a shift would cost money because it does not resolve the state’s $100 billion public employee unfunded pension liability.

Rauner has predicted a law signed by Quinn in December, which would raise retirement ages and curb cost-of-living-increases also would be found unconstitutional. The law is being challenged in court.

The Republican candidate also proposed a 10 percent cut in the budget of the General Assembly and statewide elected officials at an estimated savings of $40 million. “He probably should have made these suggestions when we were voting on the budget,” Cullerton said.

Rauner also called for a long talked about merger of the offices of state treasurer and comptroller to save $12 million. But Rauner has no authority to make such a move as governor since it would require a change in the state constitution.

To highlight his contention of government waste, Rauner said he would zero-out such budget items as more than $100,000 earmarked to fly prairie chickens, an endangered species in the state, from Kansas to Illinois. As a prop, he displayed three barnyard chickens in a wire cage.

But Quinn aides noted funding for the prairie chicken restoration program comes from specially dedicated fees paid by hunters, not taxpayers overall, and that federal funding also assists the program.

Earlier Thursday, a group of 40 Chicago-area clergy members stood with Quinn to endorse him at a Hyde Park hotel meeting room, backing the Democrat’s efforts to expand health care and raise the state’s $8.25 an hour minimum wage to $10, among other issues.

“We’re a diverse group of people all over our state and we don’t want anyone, anyone, marginalized,” Quinn told the group.

Walter Turner, a pastor at New Spiritual Light Missionary Baptist Church in the South Shore, jabbed Rauner for his campaign commercials “promoting diversity” but contended the Republican has failed, among other ways, in “dealing with diversity” and advocating for Chicago communities plagued with violence.

With Quinn, “we have a governor who has a commitment that he has stated time and time again that he will be here to do what needs to be done and to make sure that all are included,” Turner said, a reference to the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative and other issues Quinn has supported.

The program was implemented shortly before Quinn won election in 2010. It has drawn criticism for mismanagement in a state audit earlier this year and is under a state and federal investigation.

Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn received a robust re-election endorsement this week from dozens of Chicago area ministers, including at least two whose religious organizations got money from a much-criticized state anti-violence grant program.

A 19-year-old Portsmouth woman is facing multiple charges following a police pursuit that ended in Newport News over the weekend and involved two children reported missing in Chesapeake, an official said.